Parliament should assess rejected constitutional amendments: Ozersay

Parliament should assess rejected constitutional amendments: Ozersay

Turkish Cypriot negotiator and the leader of the “Toparlanıyoruz” (Let’s Get It Together) Kudret Özersay believes that parliament needs to deal with the fact that the referendum rejected recent constitutional amendments made to bring the TRNC in closer alignment with EU law.

Speaking to ‘Kibris Postasi’ Özersay said that that the referendum results should be analysed closely adding that an extraordinary session should be held in parliament in order to examine the results as soon as possible.

Constitutionally, the president or the political parties can make the call for an extraordinary parliamentary session said Özersay. Emphasising the urgent need to evaluate the results Özersay criticised the political parties for the delay in making a detailed analysis of the results.

“Personally, I think it’s an urgent matter to convene parliament and make a detailed analysis of the reasons why the constitutional amendments were rejected. However no one, including the Parliamentary Speaker made any evaluation. In my opinion this is unacceptable” said Özersay.

According to Özersay, the result of the referendum points to a crisis regarding the Turkish Cypriots’ trust in the political system. “The common ground of both “yes” camp and “no” camp is the fact that the amendments were not enough. Unfortunately the parliament acts like it didn’t receive this message. Parliament is refusing to listen to the people’s voice. Parliament does not have the luxury to ignore this message. What they should do now is to immediately start a process for a new constitutional amendments package” added Özersay.

Touching upon his earlier remarks in which he said “if I see no hope in the negotiations I will resign” Özersay said his words should be understood to mean that: “If there was no hope I would resign, if I am still holding this position there is some hope”. Özersay added that there will be one more attempt to reach a settlement within the substantive negotiations.